How Carleton Place found an innovative way to keep and train doctors
The mayor’s task force on medical recruitment called out this health-care hub in Carleton Place as a model Cornwall should replicate. We visited to learn more about it.
For thousands of people in Cornwall and Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, access to a primary care physician, or family doctor, remains elusive.
The situation matches a similar narrative told throughout Ontario. According to the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), at the end of 2025, there are 2.5 million Ontario residents without a family doctor.
The OMA has also predicted that number will soon double. Over half of the province’s physicians are nearing the age of retirement, and only 42 per cent of medical students are considering a career in family medicine.
Cornwall’s situation is worse than the provincial average. With an estimated 21,000 residents without access to a family care provider, almost half the city is left to rely on walk-in clinics, emergency room visits, or skip care for as long as possible.
Ontario’s municipalities really aren’t built to solve Ontario’s crisis in primary care. Many have stepped up their efforts since the COVID-19 pandemic, to serve their communities as best they can.
“I had a hard time spending taxpayer dollars directly to attract (doctors) to come.”
CARLETON PLACE MAYOR TOBY RANDELL
Solving the problem at the local level has put municipalities in competition with each other, while medical recruitment programming puts further strain on municipal coffers.